Dear Churches of the BMAMO:
Merry Christmas, everybody! It has been a full year plus 2 months since I became your Missions Director and that time has been fruitful and positive in many ways. I could not be more excited about the ministry that Bro. Juan Fernandez and his family are carrying out and the fruit that they are seeing. I beg you to continue to pray and support Bro. Juan in any and every way the Lord leads.
On a State level, I am striving to encourage each church to do the BMAMO assessment and utilize the accompanying pamphlet so that the next time you perform the assessment, the church as a whole will score better and thereby increase their Missions knowledge. These articles over the next few months will lay out specifically the impetus behind the assessment questions and how to use the pamphlet to better prepare yourself for your next assessment. I am hearing positive things from the churches that have made use of the assessment and will be sharing that soon.
Most of us have heard the question, “What do you give someone that has everything?” As Americans, we don’t think of ourselves in that light, yet compared to 2/3 of the world we do have everything. We have comfortable homes, wardrobes to clothe ourselves, refrigerators and freezers full of food, cars, trucks, houses, and lands. You and I know there are lots of people that have more “stuff” than we do. But to get back to the question – what do you give someone that has everything? The answer is to give them something that they cannot provide for themselves. For every man, woman, boy, and girl, that is what Jesus did for us. He gave us the one thing we could never provide for ourselves – His precious salvation. This is why we call ourselves “Missionaries.” It is our mission to take this most wonderful gospel to the world, specifically to the people within your and my sphere of influence.
On a very practical level, I believe we can take the same ideology and ask, “What can I do for the people within my sphere of influence that they cannot do for themselves?” That’s the way you make your Christmas list and shed the light of the gospel in their lives. Some of those on your list will have physical needs, some will be spiritual, some will be time that you spend with them, and some will be financial gifts. I encourage you to ask yourself the question as you go about preparing to bless others with a gift.
Lastly, on a negative note, but also positive from the standpoint of potential healing and restoration, our Baptist Missionary Association President Justin Rhodes was relieved of his duties as Pastor of his church because of an unstated moral failure. This is public knowledge, I am told, and I got permission to share this before I included it in this article. You may not know Justin, but I do. This was a shock and a great disappointment. I have nothing but empathy, forgiveness, and love for Justin, and I’m asking you to pray for him, the church that he pastored, and the association, that God will bring healing, restoration, and forgiveness. I love the verse that says God will restore the years the locust have eaten. What Satan means for evil, God will use for good and for a lesson to all of us.
Let’s remember 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
May the Lord richly bless you this Christmas season.
Bro. Ben Kingston
